Lego to the Movies

Hey there dear readers, Kevin Sutorius here. I’m back with another new series, “Lego to the Movies” where I compare various Lego sets with their movie counterpart. For my first entry, I am covering the brand new Back to the Future Time Machine set, that was just released on July 23rd. What makes this set so special is that a Lego fan designed this and Lego made into a sellable set through their project called Cuusoo. The idea behind Cuusoo (lego.cuusoo.com) is that you submit a design, and if 10,000 people vote for it, the Lego company goes through the legal steps to try to make the set a reality. Additionally, another special feature of this set is for every BTTF set sold, a portion of the revenue goes to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research. The set is sold globally starting August 1st through lego.com or participating Lego retail stores.

Now as a fan of the movies, I was really looking forward to this set. There are multiple differences between the cuusoo-submitted set design, created by Masashi Togami and Sakuretsu, and the set that Lego designed and is selling. It originally had six figures, three each of Marty McFly and Doc Brown, with their different costumes from all three movies (if you wish to see their original design, head to lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/96). The Lego set, however, comes with only two figures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown, with switchable faces but no costume changes. The DeLorean can be modified three different ways to look like the car from all three films, and you only have to make small changes, rather than taking the whole car apart and rebuilding it.

The set comes with pre made, sticker-free pieces that directly pull from the movie with: The Flux Capacitor, the OUTATIME and the 2015 orange barcode license plates, and the Time Settings display. Apart from the Marty McFly and Doc Brown mini-figures, these pieces are unique and were specially made for this set. The parts that make up the DeLorean are regular pieces you can find in other Lego sets. This set comes with 401 pieces and the build took about 2 hours, because it’s mostly made up of small pieces. The instruction book is easy to read and easy to follow step by step.

The quality of the car is decent, but much more fragile than I expected. I enjoy a Lego set that can handle a little play time, and be aesthetically pleasing at the same time. Sadly, this does not meet the structural requirements. Trying to replicate the DeLorean could’ve been handled with more finesse, rather than the rigidity we get here. There are no windows and the gull-wing doors leave a lot to be desired, since they fall apart pretty easily. The wheels are exposed and although they fold down to recreate the flying DeLorean from Back to the Future Part II, the car sits very low

and all the external pieces can slip off. I am surprised that some minor things, like including the dog Einstein or a simple black walkie-talkie to look like the remote Doc used when testing the DeLorean for the first time, were not included to really recreate scenes from the movies.

Adding the very few pieces to make the set look like the car from Parts II and III are relatively easy to attach, using some of the clever ingenuity and engineering that makes Lego well known. However, there is one major fault with this set, something critical that could’ve been easily avoided: the Marty and Doc mini-figures BARELY FIT in in the car at the same time. You have to put someone’s arms up in order for both to fit. Now I know both Marty and Doc sit, drive, and travel though time in the car together in the movies, and that’s something I wanted to recreate with this play set.

DeLorean from Back to the Future Part I

DeLorean from Back to the Future Part I

DeLorean from Back to the Future Part II

DeLorean from Back to the Future Part II

DeLorean from Back to the Future Part III

This set has a lot going for it but there are too many simple oversights (like how the word “shield” is misspelled on the Flux Capacitor), essential design flaws that could’ve been fixed, and some small details that also could’ve been added to make this a truly wonderful set.

I wish this set had been redesigned closer to the original car from the movies, rather than trying to tweak the cuusoo-submitted design. The submitted design had the costumes for Marty McFly and Doc Brown from all three movies, and instead we get one mini-figure each with two facial expressions. We get a skateboard for Marty, BUT NO HOVER-BOARD PIECE?! That was one of the few things I was looking forward to and, again, it could’ve been added, but I don’t understand why not. Great Scott!

Gripes aside, this is an okay set. It may not be worth the $35 price tag to many, but it’s decent-looking. I imagine the only type of people that will buy this are true fans of the movies and not kids, since the play-ability is pretty low.